Judge Bios

Jackson Browne has written and performed some of the most moving songs in popular music and has defined a genre of songwriting charged with honesty, emotion and personal politics. He's been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2004) and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame (2007).  His hit songs include The Pretender, Somebody's Baby, Tender Is The Night, and Running On Empty.  As influential and enduring as his music is, it is Browne's legacy as an advocate for social and environmental justice that makes him a true icon. In 1979, Browne, with Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, and John Hall organized a series of concerts in 1979 to benefit MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy). He is the recipient of numerous awards including the NARM Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award; Chapin-World Hunger Year Harry Chapin Humanitarian Award; and John Steinbeck Award and has honorary Doctorate of Music from Occidental College.


Chevy Chase is an American Emmy Award-winning comedian, writer and television and film actor. In addition to his numerous movie roles, he has hosted the Academy Awards Shows twice and won acclaim for numerous television apperances. Chevy Chase is an avid environmentalist along with his wife Jayni and has been an active fundraiser for environmental and political causes for many years. Jayni Chase has been a tireless advocate for the health of future generations. She is the founder of the Center for Environmental Education, which has grown into one of the strongest and most vital outreach programs for educators world-wide. In 2004 and 2005, Jayni received the Audubon Women in Conservation Award and the Thorne Ecological Institutes Environmental Award. Jayni and Chevy have three daughters, Cydney, Caley and Emily.



Chin is one of the original 16 artists included in the PBS Series Art of the 21st Century. His work has been shown at the Hirshhorn Museum, the Walker Art Center, the Menil Collection, the Station Museum, and more.  His proposal for a New World Trade Center was part of the American representation at the 2002 Venice Biennale of Architecture. Chin is the recipient of many awards and grants including a Cal Arts/Alpert Award, a Rockefeller Foundation grant, a Pollock/Krasner Foundation Fellowship, a Tiffany Foundation Award, a Joan Mitchell Award, an Engelhard Award, a Penny McCall Foundation Award, and several NEA Fellowships.  He is the recipient of honorary doctorate degrees from Rhode Island School of Design, Maryland Institute College of Art, and most recently, Green Mountain College.


Los Angeles-based multimedia visual artist, painter and curator Dianna Cohen is best known for her two-dimensional and three-dimensional works using recycled plastic bags -- sewn together -- ranging from small hanging pieces to room-sized installations. Her work has been exhibited in Australia, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Yugoslavia, and throughout the United States.  She is a committed spokesperson on the problem of plastic pollution and has worked on a solution to this issue for nearly twenty years.


Philppe Cousteau is the thirty year-old son of Jan & Philippe Cousteau Sr., and the grandson of Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau. As a member of the legendary family, Philippe is continuing the work of his father through EarthEcho International , the non-profit organization he founded with his sister and mother and of which he serves as CEO. EarthEcho International's mission is to empower youth to take action that restores and protects our water. EarthEcho International's programs work to provide ocean education and service-learning on a national scale in ways that unite the efforts of other prominent organizations and identify and engage the most promising leaders of tomorrow in the struggle for ocean health today.


Agnes Gund is President Emerita of The Museum of Modern Art and Chairman of its International Council.  She is also Chairman of MoMA/P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.  A philanthropist, staunch supporter of education, women’s issues and environmental concerns, and collector of modern and contemporary art, Ms. Gund currently serves on the boards of the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, The Frick Collection, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, and Socrates Sculpture Park, among others.  Ms. Gund received an M.A. in Art History from Harvard University and has since received numerous honorary doctorate degrees, including honors from CUNY Graduate Center (2007) and Brown University (1996).


Van Jones is a Senior Fellow focusing on "green-collar jobs" and how cities are implementing job-creating climate solutions. Van Jones is a globally recognized, award-winning pioneer in human rights and the clean energy economy. He is a co-founder of three successful nonprofit organizations: the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, and Green For All. He is also the best-selling author of the definitive book on green jobs, The Green Collar Economy. Jones served as the green jobs advisor in the Obama White House in 2009 and is currently a senior policy advisor at Green For All. He also holds a joint appointment at Princeton University as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African American Studies and in the Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.


David A. Ross has a 40-year career as an art museum professional and educator. Career highlights have included curatorial and senior leadership positions at the Everson Museum of Art, the Long Beach Museum of Art, and the University Art Museum at UC Berkeley; and directorships at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art, the Whitney Museum, and at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.  Ross was also the Co-Founder and President of the Artists’ Pension Trust (a pioneering financial planning program for working artists), has lectured at various universities across the country, and has served as juror and commissioner at a broad range of international shows and exhibitions. Currently Ross is the Chairman of the MFA program in Art Practice at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.


During the past twenty-five years, artist Carrie Mae Weems has worked toward developing a complex body of art that has at various times employed photographs, text, fabric, audio, digital images, installation, and, most recently, video. Despite the variety of her explorations she feels her responsibility as an artist is, "to make art, beautiful and powerful, that adds and reveals; to beautify the mess of a messy world, to heal the sick and feed the helpless." The award-winning artist has been pulished and commissioned by the Getty Museum, Williams College Museum of Art, and Tulane University’s Newcomb Art Gallery and shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, Whitney Museum of American Art, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, among others.